


Maybe? Probably.

by writerpeach



Category: NINE PERCENT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Chaptered, Fluff and Crack, Historical Inaccuracy, Historical References, M/M, Soulmates, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:01:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29723178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerpeach/pseuds/writerpeach
Summary: After an Instagram filter indicated that his soulmate’s location was a mirror, Justin playfully remarked that he was his own soulmate. But what will happen if someone actually emerges from the object, claiming that they came from the past? How will poor Justin deal with the situation at hand?
Kudos: 3





	1. Stressed college student Justin almost passing out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Myself](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Myself/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DISCLAIMER: This story contains a lot of swearing. Just making sure in case someone’s uncomfortable with it. 
> 
> Ps. There are plot holes everywhere.

A yawn escaped Justin's mouth as he leaned back on his seat and stretched both his arms. He’s been sitting at his desk for three hours straight already but he was not even half-way done through his essay. 

“Fuck this shit…” he muttered exasperated before he placed his fingers back on the keyboard to continue his work. However, not even a minute later a sound caught his attention; a notification from Twitter.

Justin watched the screen of his phone turn black again, debating if he should continue with his study or take some time off. He's been working diligently on the essay for hours right? He deserved to have a break. 

Yes. Yes he did.

“I’ll just take a fifteen minutes break,” he announced more to his conscience rather than himself. And that’s how a quick break turned into hours of procrastination.

Justin had totally forgotten about his homework as he started scrolling through all of his social networking accounts. The black-haired guy didn’t even realize how he went from checking his Twitter DMs to laughing at random memes on Instagram and watching his friends' stories. All of that eventually resulted in him trying different Instagram filters now.

“Ooohh, this one is interesting,” he grinned before he fixed the fringe that slightly covered his eyes. He chose the filter that apparently indicated the location of his soulmate.

“The nearest mirror…?” There was a slight smirk etched on his face as he read the result. He proceeded to clean the imaginary dust on his shoulders before he stood in front of his full length mirror, expression smug.

“I mean… Look at that face,” he commented, tilting his head slightly as he observed himself. The arrogant smirk still on his face as he bit his lips and winked at the mirror while showing both sides of his profile. You see, Justin is a man of confidence, he has no shame in admitting that he's handsome. He loved to flaunt his looks and where his friends called it narcissism, Justin believed its self-confidence.

“No one else is deserving of such beau-” A gasp escaped Justin’s lips as he quickly stepped back and tripped on his own feet, making his ass land on the hard floor. The impact made him slightly wince in pain but he ignored it nonetheless.

“What the fucking hell was that?!” he screeched, eyes widened in shock. One hand pointing at the mirror and the other on his chest, trying to calm his racing heart.

Was that his imagination or has he finally gone crazy? 

Justin gulped as he placed one of his arms on the bed and tried to get up. 

“No, but I’m sure I saw it. A fucking hand came out of that mirror,” he mumbled, gaze still fixed on the object. 

“What if… What if it's a ghost.” Justin turned pale as he said those words slowly. He wasn’t the type to believe in such things, but the amount of horror movies that Chengcheng made him watch slowly started to show their effect on him. 

“Fuck you Fan Chengcheng, I hope your dog shits on your cereal,” he muttered with gritted teeth. 

His eyes narrowed as another person came into his mind. Wang Linkai, the little devil of his friend.

“Tomorrow I will kick Linkai’s ass if I find out he gifted me a haunted mirror,” he hissed under his breath.

Justin kept his eyes glued on the mirror for a while, waiting for some hideous creature to come out of it but nothing happened. When he finally recovered from the shock, he decided to grab the phone he previously left on the bed and checked the time. 

Great, he wasted three hours on random stuff and hallucinations instead of getting his essay done and now he only had a couple of hours left until the deadline.

The black-haired guy let his body flop on the chair as he groaned loudly. 

“Can I graduate already and put an end to this torture?” he whined, throwing his head back. Unfortunately for him, he was only in the first year of college, so he still had a long way to go.

“Anyways, I’ll go and make myself a cup of tea. My brain cells can’t work properly when I’m drowsy.” At this point it really looked like Justin was just making up excuses to do anything but write that essay. Truth be told, he hasn’t been getting enough sleep lately because of the amount of assignments that kept piling up. If only he didn’t get distracted every three seconds. He sighed as he got up.

Justin made his way in the small kitchen of his shared apartment. 

After turning the lights on, he grabbed a small pot from the cupboard and filled it with water. Then he placed it on the stove and opened a drawer to get a bag of green tea. If people’s comfort drink and energizer was coffee, Justin’s was certainly tea. He loved the plain taste of warmth that the hot beverage had; it never failed to relax him or even brighten up his mood.

Justin leaned on the kitchen counter and gazed outside the window. The sun has already been replaced by the moon that was shining brightly surrounded by millions of stars and constellations that seemed to be swallowed by the darkness of the sky.

Justin was almost lost in the beauty of the night sky when the sound of boiling water pulled his mind back to reality. He quickly turned off the stove and snatched an oven glove that was hanging on the wall. 

He was about to hold the pot by the handle, when he heard the sound of his ringtone echoing loudly from his bedroom.

“Who the fuck is it now?” he grumbled, before throwing the glove on the counter.

“I swear if it’s one of those people trying to make me change my electricity company for the ninth time. I will curse at them,” he mumbled as he rushed back into his room. With knitted eyebrows and face contorted in a scowl, Justin flung the door open and headed straight towards his study table. 

However, the moment he picked up the phone, it stopped ringing. And as Justin expected, it was an unknown number. 

“Stupid bitches.” 

The boy slid the device in one of his jogging pant’s pockets and turned around to get back to the kitchen. But as he lifted his head, the scene that unfolded before him seemed to glue his feet on the ground.

A foot? A leg? A-

A scream almost ripped Justin’s throat as he started grabbing everything that he could (a.k.a his pillows) to throw it towards the-whatever just came out of his mirror. 

“What the fuck are you!?” 

“Begone Satan!”

“I know I said that you could take me but I was joking!”

“I can’t leave this world without meeting Shawn Mendez!” 

“Bitch I’m sure you came to haunt the wrong person because I swear I never killed anyone!” Justin stopped yelling for a second. “Well… Not yet. But you know what I mean!” The volume of his voice increased slightly at the last part.

Meanwhile, the poor creature (who seemed to be a human) couldn’t do anything else besides covering their face in an attempt to protect themself from Justin’s attacks. 

At some point the black-haired guy didn’t have any more pillows to throw and he certainly had no intentions to damage his expensive laptop. He scanned the room frantically to search for other stuff he could use to defend himself but to no avail. It’s in moments like these that Justin wants to curse the hell out of his minimalist side.

Sensing that Justin went silent, the mysterious person who was still standing in the middle of the room, slowly tried to lower his arms and peek at the guy. However, their eyes grew wide as they saw Justin attempting to lift the swivel chair. 

“Wait!” 

The man dashed towards the black-haired guy to stop him before he could seriously hurt him. 

“I’m not here to cause any harm to you. Please, you have to believe me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be a oneshot but it's coming too long so I decided to make it chaptered. I will try my best to update this constantly and finish as soon as possible but I can't promise anything, since I'm a professional procrastinator and lazy ass. I hope y'all enjoy hehe. Also I started this on January or December, yet... *insert clown emoji*


	2. Justin's bestie to the rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You know someone loves you when they show up at your door in the middle of the night just because you called them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notice my amazing title chapters, I really am the genius of all of dumbasses.

Justin was pacing back and forth in his room, occasionally biting his index finger in anticipation.

“What’s taking him so long? Did he fall down the stairs or something? His apartment is just a couple of minutes from- Oh there he is!”  
The boy dashed towards the door, almost tripping on air, when he heard the doorbell ring.

He quickly opened the door to let in the guy whom he thought was the only one who would listen to him and not call the mental asylum the moment Justin opens his mouth. 

His friend, a beautiful guy with delicate facial features and purple hair parted from the middle, sported an angry pout on his face as he shot Justin a threatening glare the moment he saw him. He was about to point an accusing finger at the black-haired boy but the latter quickly pulled him inside his house making him groan instead.

“This better be important or I’ll cut all of your sweaters, burn them and throw the ashes to the nearest river.” The purple haired-guy, Zhu Zhengting, was busy rambling as the younger kept dragging him around like a ragged doll. He didn’t notice how they already made it into his friend’s room. At that point Justin finally let go of his wrist.

“What… What is this supposed to mean?” Zhengting’s forehead was crumpled as he turned to his friend, eyeing him weirdly.

Why was a guy laying on Justin’s bed and why did he look like he just returned from some Halloween party or something?

Justin sighed as he rummaged in his mind to find the right words to say that would make the situation sound less crazy.

“Look Justin. I love you. You know that, but if you made me come here in the middle of the night just to pull a weird prank on me. Then I’m sorry but I’ll need to ask you to fuck off, ‘cause I’m not in the mood to-” The older guy’s words got cut when his friend rested a hand on his shoulder, desperation and confusion both evident in his eyes.

“No! No, just please listen to me.” 

Zhengting nodded slightly, encouraging him to go on.

“It’s hard to explain but he…” Justin paused, his eyes glued on the floor.

“Like, I know you won’t believe me because I can’t believe this myself but...” The black-haired guy sighed for the second time as he caressed his nape. Zhengting couldn’t help but groan and roll his eyes in annoyance.

“What? Finish your fucking sentences. I’m not a mind-reader,” he snapped, growing impatient.

“Yeah yeah sorry…” Justin chuckled awkwardly.

“Okay, so… You know those filters? Instagram filters? Like guessing your nationality and stuff like that?”

Zhengting nodded slightly, staring intently.

“Yeah, what about those?”

“Well… I tried a filter that was supposed to show me the location of my soulmate and the result said that it was in the nearest mirror.”

“Forever alone.” Zhengting snorted. 

“Sorry go on.” He sighed when he noticed Justin glaring at him.

“So, yeah. I went in front of the mirror and admired my face-”

“Yes, typical Justin behaviour.” Zhengting nodded slightly as he folded his arms. “And then?”

“Then at some point I saw a hand coming out of it. I swear I thought I was hallucinating. I even started cursing at Chengcheng thinking it’s just because of the horror movies he made me watch.” 

The older replied with a simple “Hmm” urging his friend to continue.

“Well, after a while I went to the kitchen to drink some tea since I was feeling drowsy and that motherfucking essay wouldn’t write itself, unfortunately.” Justin suddenly stopped talking, face blank for a second before he snapped out of whatever stupid something he thought and continued with his story.

“Then some asshole called me. So I ran back in my room and that’s when shit started.” The younger guy paused dramatically to create suspense but continued again when he noticed the bored look on his friend's face.

“Yoh, when I tell you my heart dropped to my ass.” Justin clasped Zhengting’s arm as he looked straight into his friend’s eyes with the most serious face ever. The latter meanwhile was now struggling to hold a laugh.

“You know how Sadako came out of the TV in The Ring? That’s how this bitchass came out of my mirror…” The black-haired guy pointed towards the guy laying on his bed.

“I honestly thought my time has come. But luckily, Shawn didn’t raise no weakass bitch so obviously I fought back and threw things at him.” The boy grinned proudly while crossing his arms.

“Wait, what do you mean Shawn raised you huh? How dare you give that white bitch credit for my work?” Zhengting lifted one of his eyebrows, offended. He was about to scold him further but the disrespectful teen cut him off again, not even looking slightly guilty.

“Ssh, that’s not the freaking point.” He dismissed the older's words and continued.

“The point is… He talked to me and, here comes the craziest part.” Justin slightly widened his eyes for the dramatics again.

“Oh there’s more…Spill.” 

“Yeah. Basically he said that he comes from the 18th Century.”

“Well, that would explain why he’s dressed up like one of those people in history books. He reminds me of a prince or an aristocrat from Europe. With the fancy dress and white wig.” Zhengting affirmed while observing the mysterious guy. Justin was a bit bewildered at how Zhengting believed him so easily. 

“Anyway, did he tell you anything else? Like, how he came here and why? Or even who is he?” Zhengting returned his gaze to Justin, who was now staring at the unknown person.

“Not really. He just said that his name is Cai Xukun and that he came from a wealthy family. I mean, you can easily guess it by his clothes. It can probably cover three months of my college fee.” He murmured, not removing his eyes from the stranger.

The purple-haired guy slowly caressed his chin, a gesture that indicated that he was deep in thought.

“So I guess, your issue here is how to take him back to where he came from right?” He asked slowly.

Justin nodded even when he knew that the older guy had his attention elsewhere. If someone else was in Zhengting’s shoes right now, they would’ve probably thought that Justin had hit his head somewhere and went insane but that's not the case with Zhengting. Never with him. You could clearly read from his face that he believed all the nonsense Justin spitted. It's the reason Justin never doubted him and called him over in the first place, he knew he could always count on the latter for everything. The corner of his lips slightly curled up at the thought.

“Wait. I forgot to comment earlier but I was wondering… You said you threw things at him. What did you throw to make him pass out?” 

Justin fought back a chuckle at Zhengting’s affirmation. He didn’t know why but the way his friend said it with that nonchalant tone like it was a normal and very ordinary thing for Justin to knock out centuries old humans trying to invade his space, seemed pretty amusing to him.

However the moment Zhengting looked back at him, Justin gasped loudly with his hand on his chest in mock offense. 

“How dare you think that I, Huang Justin, an angel, could hurt anyone to the point where they had to pass out?!” He exclaimed, pitch getting louder with every next syllable that left his mouth but then again, Zhu Zhengting had already reached the point in his life where he had grown immune to all of Justin's antics. Therefore it was no surprise that his face remained indifferent when a normal human could suffer from possible ear damage because of the younger's annoyingly painful screech.

“Justin… Last year you literally threw a flower vase at Chengcheng for the sole reason that he stained your new pants with barbecue sauce,” the guy affirmed in a flat tone. 

“First of all… He asked for it. Those pants cost more than his entire comics collection.” Justin moved his index finger to back-up the words he just pronounced. “Second of all… He didn’t pass out.” 

Zhengting sighed before slowly shaking his head, a grin curving his lips. This kid was unbelievable.

“Whatever you say.” He sing-songed.

“But yeah, I did try to throw the swivel chair at him for self-defense but I didn’t do it in the end, ” the boy stated, his tone a bit softer now.

Zhengting chuckled, not fazed at all by what he heard. 

“See! You’re a walking hazard,” he teased. 

“I said I didn’t do it in the end! He’s just sleeping because I made him drink some tea.”

“And you put in sleeping pills?” The older grinned obviously knowing the answer.

“Can you fucking stop accusing me of things I clearly did?” Justin threw his hands in the air, exasperated.

Zhengting laughed loudly at Justin’s declaration, a hand automatically clutching his stomach. The younger couldn't do anything but glare at the guy who was supposed to help him here and not laugh at his incredible self-defense tactics.

“How did you make him drink it without him noticing though? I mean, it’s not like those pills are small,” the purple-haired observed after he finally regained his composure.

“What do you mean how? I had the powdered version, obviously. You should know that I’m not really a fan of pills.”

“Oh, yeah right.” Zhengting slightly bobbed his head as he recalled how Justin mentioned that he hated pills because he almost choked on one when he was younger.

“Well, I do think he’s also quite stupid for trusting you after you attempted to break his skull with a swivel chair.” Zhengting giggled slightly as he looked at the guy sleeping peacefully on his friend's bed. 

Justin narrowed his eyes. “How many times do I have to tell you that it was self-defense?" A smug expression replaced his previous annoyance as he said the next words. "Plus you can’t really blame him. My charm is basically irresistible.” 

Zhengting’s smile only grew wider as he stared at Justin who was now looking at his nails like they were the most interesting thing in the world.

“Sure sure. But now it's better if we continue this discussion in your living room so we don’t disturb your guest slash soulmate’s sleep.” 

Zhengting circled Justin’s shoulder guiding him towards the door and outside the latter’s bedroom, without forgetting to turn off the light.

“I would think that you’re being kind right now. But we all know that it’s just an excuse to make me prepare coffee,” the black-haired guy affirmed as he freed himself from Zhengting’s grasp and went straight to the kitchen, while the older took a seat on the table.

Justin’s shared apartment wasn’t huge, but it was spacious enough for three college students to live together. The kitchen barely fit two people at the same time, while the dining and living area were basically in the same room, but all in all you could still move around comfortably.

“That’s the minimum you can do for interrupting my beauty rest asshole.” Zhengting remarked playfully before snatching a banana from the basket that was placed on the center of the table. “Oh and of course if my eyebags get bigger, I’ll make you pay for my face masks,” he continued, a mischievous smile prepped on his pretty face.

Justin froze, Zhengting was a great friend and a kind person of course but his love for skin care products was not something to be underestimated.

“And here I thought that you loved me.” The younger pursed his lips in a small pout. 

“It’s no use trying, _that _doesn’t work on me.” Zhengting didn’t spare him a second glance as he bit down on the half-unpeeled fruit that he was holding.__

“Also, I almost died on the way here... Since I ran without tying my shoelaces,” he murmured, the sound of his voice lowering at the last part as he almost hoped that his friend wouldn’t catch it. Unfortunately for him, the black-haired boy seemed to hear it loud and clear. Damn him and his fully-functioning hearing.

Justin couldn’t help but cackle as he imagined the scene. His body swaying slightly, making him spill a bit of the mocha powder that he was currently trying to put in the coffee maker.

“Wow. Your overflowing concern for me is so touching. I’m definitely tearing up here,” Zhengting deadpanned, his face carefully blank. 

The older’s sarcasm didn’t help with Justin's situation who at this point was basically rolling on the floor—if it was possible. Justin’s abdomen was contracting so hard, he was barely able to breathe. Who needs work-outs when you have Zhu Zhengting as your friend, right?

The two were enjoying each other’s company so much, that for a moment they totally forgot about their little problem in Justin’s bedroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't we all love Zhengting? Yes we do. Anyway hope y'all enjoyed this hehe.


	3. Justin almost having a heart-attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Further comments are not needed

The first rays of the sun peeked through the cracks of Justin’s blinds, gently tapping on Xukun’s face and everything it could lay on. A few seconds later, the latter’s eyelids started twitching, sign that he was finally waking up. His eyebrows furrowed as he attempted to flutter his eyes open, the blinding light giving him a hard time. The guy proceeded to lift one of his hands above his face and used the other one to rub his eyes.

Xukun raised his torso, using his hands and elbows to keep his balance. Once he was seated up, the guy remained silent for a couple of minutes in his groggy state, eyes barely opened, trying to recollect his thoughts. 

After blinking a few times, he carefully moved his gaze around to inspect the room, forehead still crumpled in confusion. Where was he? Why was he sleeping in this weird looking room?

Last thing he remembered was that he was conversing with a guy and the same guy threw things at him because he went through a mirror and… 

_What a strange dream_. He thought. But then why was the surroundings the same as his dream? Was he still dreaming? 

Xukun lifted one of his hands lightly tapping his cheek to make sure he wasn’t sleeping anymore. Suddenly, a soft whimper made him turn to his side. Xukun’s eyes almost popped out of the sockets as he recognized the same guy of his dreams. Said guy was currently massaging his neck slightly, eyes squeezed tight and face contorted in a pained expression. 

The sleeves’ imprints on Justin’s reddened cheek were a sign that the guy ended up falling asleep on his desk while trying to finish his infamous essay. He was determined to get it done even if he had already passed the deadline.

“Fucking hell…” he whispered, without opening his eyes.

The boy tried to straighten his position as slow as possible to not increase the sharp pain that was stinging his neck, he let out a quiet moan as he straightened his back. He then turned the chair, unintentionally putting himself in front of Xukun who was still staring at him stunned, and started massaging his shoulders with his eyes still shut. 

“I’m never doing this shit ever again,” he mumbled, finally opening his eyes and lifting his head. 

The moment his gaze landed on Xukun, a choked screech slipped out of his mouth; for a moment he forgot about the guy that popped out of his mirror. However, he quickly covered it when he noticed that the stranger got startled as well.

“OMG, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intention to scare you.” Justin stood up from the chair, sticking out a hand to reassure the guy.

Xukun observed the younger, his gaze slowly moving up and down as different pieces of memories became more vivid in his head. 

_“Auntie said that this mirror is magical. She said that you could see the reflection of your soulmate.” The little girl turned to Xukun._

_“Do you believe in soulmates?” she asked, her little eyes shining in curiosity._

_“Maybe.” A grin curved the corner of his lips._

_“Would you like to take a look then?”_

_He nodded without letting his smile fade._

The latter blinked as the image of the little girl carved in his mind.

_Xukun’s heart tightened in his chest while staring at whatever scene was shown on the reflection in that moment. Never in his life has he seen this person. But somehow, the way they seemed so helpless, tears staining their soft pale skin while they were hugging their own legs... Xukun wished he could do something. And before he realized it, one of his hands was already extended in front of him in an attempt to caress the stranger’s cheeks as if that could help them in any way._

The guy couldn’t help but lower his gaze on his right hand. He moved his fingers in a closing and opening motion the same way he did when it passed through the mirror for the first time. It happened so fast that he started doubting his own eyes and sanity. However, the way his own body reacted to it, pulling his hand back as if he touched a burning flame, to the way his heart started pumping like he just ran a marathon… All those intense feelings and sensations could confirm that it wasn’t, in fact, just a figment of his imagination…

At that point he was certain that he wasn’t dreaming anymore. He was never dreaming in the first place, everything he remembered was real; from the kid taking him to that room to him defying every law of physics by passing through a damn mirror.

And while Xukun was busy reminiscing the previous events, Justin was closely observing him, profusely sweating as he started feeling guilty for his actions slash self-defense tactics yesterday.

“Fuck, did I go overboard with the sleeping powder dosage?” he thought as he blatantly stared at the guy sitting on his bed who still seemed to be in deep thoughts.

The black-haired guy kept on opening and closing his mouth, unsure of what to say first, occasionally scratching his temple and sighing in frustration. He was so occupied with making sure Xukun wasn’t experiencing any side effects of the medicine he gave him, that he totally forgot about his own state.

After a couple of minutes Justin finally found the courage to speak up. “Uhm, Xukun? Are you… Are you okay?” 

The guy faintly widened his eyes, as he eventually came back to his senses.

“Ah, yes… Certainly. You don’t have to worry. I’m definitely alright,” he blabbered, avoiding Justin’s gaze as he stared at the bedsheet nervously.

The latter narrowed his eyes and lifted one of his eyebrows in suspicion but he decided not to push it any further. Xukun was probably just a bit disorientated; which was more than understandable in their circumstances.

“Okay… Anyways, are you hungry?” 

And as if on cue Justin’s question was followed by the sound of a rumbling stomach.

“Shut up bitch. I’m not asking you,” he stated as he pointed a finger to his own belly. 

“So?” he continued putting his attention back to Xukun.

The corner of the older’s lips twitched slightly as he wondered if he should be intimidated, weirded out or amused by the younger’s no attitude. 

***

“Okay… So… What could possibly a broke college student like me give to a rich aristocrat like Xukun for breakfast?” Justin mumbled as he rummaged through his kitchen’s cupboards looking for something edible for the said man.

After having sifted the kitchen from top to bottom for almost fifteen minutes, the guy came to the conclusion that he only had a few canned foods, some packets of ramen, half-expired cookies and just anything that might not be appetizing enough for a noble who is probably used to be having a whole feast at every meal.

Fine, _maybe_ spending most of his money on clothes that he doesn’t wear anyway instead of buying decent food wasn’t the best decision Justin made. 

“Well, sorry not sorry but I wasn’t notified that some richass ancient hag would crash at my place and that through a fucking mirror,” he huffed.

“What are you doing?” 

“Holy fu-” Justin flinched as he turned around to see the owner of the voice that almost gave him a heart attack. The latter was immediately greeted by the bright face of a cute brown-haired guy, You Zhangjing, who had a small grin resting on his lips.

“Zhangjing! Hello!” the younger squeaked as he pulled a tight smile and tried to regain his composure. “Wow, you’re up early today, are you going to work?” he added, his anxiety building up in his stomach as he hoped that his flatmate didn’t hear all the nonsense he was blabbering; maybe he should really stop thinking out loud.

“Hmm, not really… I just have some errands to run. I need to go to the bank and look for a gift to give to my parents. It’s their anniversary at the end of the month,” the older replied, while reaching for something in a cupboard above Justin.

“Oh, okay... Nice,” the latter uttered awkwardly.

“What about you? How are you? These days I barely catch a glimpse of you, since you’re always locked in your room when I’m home,” the brown-haired guy stated before taking a bite of his bread with jam.

“Oh, that. Well, my brain is on fire, my grades are on fire, everything is on fire and I wanna jump off a cliff, but aside that everything is absolutely fine,” Justin replied, a soft chuckle slipping out his lips as his gaze got lost in the distance. Unfortunately Zhangjing was sipping a cup of milk right at that moment, so when he snorted he choked on the beverage.

“You okay bro?” the younger asked, his gaze landing back on his flatmate as he heard the latter coughing. 

Zhangjing nodded his head while covering his mouth, a smile not leaving his lips despite his condition. Justin wanted to give him a glass of water but he knew from experience that it might only worsen the situation, so he just chose to massage the older’s back.

“I’m okay, I’m okay. Don’t worry,” Zhangjing tried to assure Justin, his coughing finally starting to tone down.

“Sure?” 

Zhangjing nodded vigorously before putting a hand on the younger’s shoulder. “Yes, thank you. You don’t need to worry.” The corners of his lips curled into a small smile as he stood up.

“Well, I guess I’ll go now. See you later,” he added as he gave Justin a small pat in the head. 

“Sure. Bye,” the latter said, a grin also curving his lips. However, his eyes grew wide when he noticed the door of his room opening. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he thought as he mentally face-palmed himself. 

“Wait!” Justin exclaimed, clasping Zhangjing’s arm to prevent him from going away. The older’s eyebrows met as he looked at the younger.

“Yes? What’s the problem?” 

“I forgot to tell you something.”

“Which is?” 

Justin remained silent as he tried to think of something. At this point Xukun was already stepping out of his room, still unaware of the presence of the other two who were right in front of him.

“Look, whatever it is, you can tell me when I come back home later.” Zhangjing was about to turn around again but Justin was quick enough to wrap his arms around the older.

“This is a bit embarrassing but what I wanted to say is I missed you,” the latter announced. The brown-haired guy’s expression softened, a smile instantly growing on his face, as he hugged Justin back. 

“You’re so sweet. I missed you too,” he cooed, oblivious to the fact that Justin was busy gesturing and mouthing stuff to Xukun, who was staring at him puzzled. Justin lightly hit his forehead when he noticed that Xukun wasn’t understanding a thing of what he was trying to tell him.

“Can we stay like this a little more?” the younger continued, trying to buy time. “If you’re not in a hurry of course,” he added, as he kept on trying to communicate with the centuries-old man through his gesture and facial expressions.

“Uhm… Sure. I never back down when someone’s in need of a hug,” Zhangjing chuckled, interpreting Justin’s behaviour as a result of him being stressed because of college.

“Thank you, your hugs are the best,” Justin stated, receiving a caress on the head from Zhangjing. The brown-haired guy has always had a soft spot for the latter, he couldn’t deny that Justin was basically a little brother for him.

And as Zhangjing started to whisper encouraging and comforting words to Justin, the black-haired guy tried to point at Xukun and his room door before using his fingers to mimic someone walking, praying that hopefully this time the man would get it. At last, Justin could sigh in relief when he saw the former-latter nodding slightly as he returned back to the younger’s room.

“Thank you so much Zhangjing. Sorry for holding you up too much,” he articulated as he finally broke the hug.

The older grinned at Justin for the hundredth time that morning. “No problem. You know that if you need, I’ll always be ready to listen and just lend a hand in general.” He proceeded to ruffle the younger’s long-fluffy hair affectionately before heading towards his own bedroom. 

Once Zhangjing was out of sight, Justin’s smile dropped as he let himself flop on the chair where the older was previously sitting, huffing heavily. 

“That was so fucking close,” he mumbled while wiping the beads of sweat that formed on his forehead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Justin was basically sweating bullets lmfao. Oblivious soft Zhangjing uwu.


End file.
